10 Reasons Why Your Company Should Host a Virtual Event

23rd March 2011 by Sean Malone

We have produced a number of Virtual Events for our clients and in one of my earlier posts I provided a list of 10 steps to planning a Virtual Event . I realise that Virtual Events are still very much in their infancy and that many people are still unsure as to thier benefits and their potential value to their organisaiton. That is why I have prepared a list of 10 reasons why companies should look into hosting virtual events.

1. High impact: As soon as the audience log-in and start viewing from their laptop or mobile device they are engaged: it’s the closest thing you’ll ever get to an instant TV programme.

2. Low cost. It’s about 75% cheaper to execute than a live event. And if it’s well planned, produced and executed it will deliver outstanding feedback.

3. Global coverage. A virtual event (properly hosted) can be viewed by an audience, of tens, hundreds, or thousands: interactively, across the World via the internet.

4. Super convenient. Your audience may not be able to make it to your live event, but they can definitely attend your virtual event because you can give them the option to log-in at the start time, or stream and view later at a time that is convenient.

5. Audience engagement. The active desktop through which the audience is viewing the virtual event can be optimised to suit individual preferences and thereby maximise personal engagement. This can lead to interactive Q&A sessions and discussions over social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

6. Instant feedback. If you’re sitting in the audience at a live event you can’t normally give immediate feedback, but you can at a virtual event. You can chat online with fellow delegates, ask questions: and have those questions translated from your preferred language, in real time.

7. Flexibility. If you want to make lots of versions, or variants of your virtual event you can without any real cost implications: different languages, graphics, speakers and video content – the choice is yours.

8. Extendibility. The virtual event is just the start point. You can divide the content into chapter headings and host it on the internet, or you can re-distribute it via WMV, DVD, QuickTime, YouTube, or to smart phones.

9. Measurability. A virtual event produces reams of valuable statistics: who is logging-on and when, audience size, geography, location, method of payment and much, much more.

10. Environment. Getting 150 delegates from around Britain to drive to a hotel in Birmingham creates a sizable carbon footprint. Imagine the impact of 500 hundred delegates flying to one place from around the world! With a virtual event the cost to the environment is minute.

I am really excited about the future of Virtual Events and the many benefits they can bring to organisations around the world.

To find out about how VirtualStudio.TV can help you take your events online please visit the Virtual Events and Live Streaming pages of our website.

If you have any extra suggestions to add to this list, or any arguments against any of the points, I would love to hear them! Please do get in touch with me by leaving a comment below or sending me an e-mail.